Freelance Series — Keeping the Cost of Training Low

One of the biggest challenges a training department has is justifying its existence. In most cases, learning and development only show up on the expense side of the balance sheet. So how do we justify our existence to the powers that be? Here are several strategies that you can include in training to keep the cost low and justify the existence of learning and development to the decision-makers in your organization.

Avoid expensive technology for technology’s sake

Virtual Reality Goggles may be an unnecessary expense

I had an experience a number of years ago with an organization that hired me for consultation. They were really excited about Adobe Captivate’s new virtual reality solution. The designer who wanted to use this new technology was more interested in the technology but didn’t consider if virtual reality lent itself to this situation. The organization purchased several virtual reality headsets for the learners to use when completing this course. This expense wasn’t needed and many in the organization were left wondering why this equipment was purchased.

Don’t reinvent the learning wheel

Some of the requests I get from new or less experienced eLearning developers look something like this…

My eLearning project is due on Monday morning and I promised this really cool interaction that I just can’t figure out. Can you help me get this completed on Sunday evening?

Of course, I help as many people in this situation as I can but I learned much earlier in my career to build what I call an eLearning utility belt. Remember how amazing Batman was at pulling out just what he needed at the moment to solve just about any crime-fighting challenge.

eLearning Superheroes

I spend a certain amount of my week working on new learning interactions. I like to design them in such a way that I can simply copy them from the original project and paste them into any project that requires them. I might spend many hours developing these solutions but can implement them into new projects in a matter of minutes. This greatly decreases my development time but also lowers my stress level. I never promise anything to a stakeholder that I don’t already have in my eLearning utility belt.

Keep learner seat time low

This one can be more challenging but worth it. It usually requires that you manage the expectations of your subject matter experts. Subject matter experts or SMEs are often assigned to you by the stakeholder for a project. These folks know everything about that area of the business. If it was up to them you would teach everything they know and the training would take many days for learners to complete. The reality is that most learners only need to know a small portion of the knowledge that the SME contains. Your eLearning projects should only include the knowledge and skills required to meet expectations. Optional material can be converted to another format. Also, material that would allow learners to take their knowledge and skill to the mastery level that an expert has can be reserved for when the stakeholder funds such a master level training program.

Use job aids whenever possible

Job aids are a great way to move content into an easy to development format that can be made available in a just-in-time way. My classic example of a parking sign is a good example of this. Sure you can make an eLearning course that teaches employees how to park in and around the various facilities at your organization but a simple parking sign (which is really just a job aid) can eliminate the need for your organization to develop a training course about parking. In this example, the parking sign (job aid) is made available in the exact location where it’s needed and there is no memorization required by your employees. They just need to follow the directions on the sign.

Rely on informal learning

There is some risk in informal learning but if you create a learning culture within your organization you can ensure that informal learning takes place. It can be as simple as giving people supervisory roles within your organization. Setting performance measurements on supervisors to include a certain amount of time in any given week to dedicate to training will ensure that regular employees learn from their mentors. You can develop job shadowing programs for very little expense (if any). Also, check if your organization has material you can already leverage. For example, one organization provided access to LinkedIn Learning. Most employees were unaware of this. By promoting this benefit, many employees will rely on this valuable resource to gain skills not only for their current role but for future positions as well.

Keep track of when learning is successful

Finally make sure that when learning proves to be successful, keep track of those successes. I like to include feedback from employee managers approximately 30-45 days after completing training. I simply ask one question.

How is your employee performing in the area related to the training?

If you can demonstrate that a previous performance gap is now addressed you might even be able to quantify it. For example, if last year there were a certain number of on the job accidents and this year your training has contributed to fewer accidents you can show the higher ups that your training has saved the company the cost associated with an injured employee.

I'm Speaking at DEVLEARN

I wanted to let all my followers at CaptivateTeacher.com know that I’m speaking at DevLearn this year! I’ve called my session Developing Customized Advanced Interactions in Captivate. It will be on October 23rd at 10 AM, and its session number 911 (I hope that's a good number). It's going to be a BYOD session, but I plan to provide participants with project files that are almost ready to go.

How does this relate to all of you?

The audience for this session is all of us, eLearning designers, developers who use Adobe Captivate. Between now and then, I will be sharing more details about what I will be putting together with you. I'm curious as to how many of you are planning on attending DevLearn this year. Please let me know in the comments of this post. Depending on how many of you there are, perhaps we can organize some type of meetup or event. I'd love to meet as many of you as possible. After all, you are all my supporters, and I appreciate each one of you for showing your support. Here is my session description:

Developing Customized, Advanced Interactions in Captivate

We've all been there. You present your eLearning course to your stakeholder only to learn that they don't want the built-in interaction that comes with Adobe Captivate. Oh boy, this is going to increase your development time. Instead, imagine reaching into your advanced action tool belt and pulling out a ready-to-go interaction that you can make a few small changes to satisfy their needs. In this BYOD session, you'll learn how to build several custom interactions in Captivate that will show off your newly found advanced actions, conditional actions, and shared action skills. Not only will you have the skills to build advanced interactions, but you'll also learn how you can replicate these interactions quickly and easily and then customize them further for different uses.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to build a custom click-to-reveal that tracks what your learners have selected and shows completion of the activity

• How to build a multiple-choice, single answer question using variables and advanced actions that doesn't rely on Adobe Captivate's question slides

• How to build a multiple correct answer question using variables and advanced actions, again, that doesn't use the standard question slides.

• How to save these advanced actions as shared actions, making them quick and easy to replicate whenever you need a similar interaction

Build Your eLearning Tool Belt

During this Livestream we will be discussing building your eLearning tool belt, a phrase you may hear me say from time to time. This eLearning Live Stream is exclusive to my Patreon members and the recorded version is made available to my YouTube channel after the recording has been made. Become a member of my Patreon channel and you get to participate in the live version of these videos. You will get to ask me any questions you have about eLearning and Adobe Captivate and I will answer them live and demonstrate solutions to the issues you are facing using this sometimes confusing software.

https://patreon.com/paulwilsonlearning

Preview and download my Canadian Flag Colouring book project file:

https://elearning.adobe.com/2020/06/drag-and-drop-canada-colouring-book/